Gospel of Philip · 2 of 13 · tr. Thomas O. Lambdin
Section 1b
TRUTH MADE NAMES Truth made names in the world, and without them we can’t think.
Truth is one and is many, teaching one thing through the many.
RULERS The rulers wanted to fool us, since they saw we were connected with the good.
They took the names of the good and gave them to the not good so with names they could trick and rope us to the not good.
As though doing us a favor, they took names from the not good and placed them on the good.
They knew what they were doing.
They wanted to grab those of us who were free and make us eternal slaves.
FORCES There are forces that don’t want us to be saved.
They act for their own sake.
.
.
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If we are saved there will be no sacrifices, no animals offered to the forces.
Yes, they made sacrifices to the animals.
They were alive when they offered them, and then they died.
They offered us dead to god, and we lived.
ONCE THERE WAS NO BREAD Before Christ came there was no bread in the world, just as paradise, with its Adam, had many trees for nourishing animals but no wheat for humans.
Once we nourished ourselves like animals, but when the perfect Christ came, he carried bread down from heaven so we could eat like humans.
RULERS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT The rulers thought they had done everything alone, but in secret the holy spirit on her own accomplished it all.
SOWING TRUTH Truth from the beginning is sown everywhere.
Many see it sown.
Few see it reaped.
MARY AND THE HOLY SPIRIT Some say the holy spirit inseminated Mary.
They are wrong and don’t know what they are saying.
When did a woman ever get a woman pregnant?
Mary is a virgin and no powers dirtied her.
She is a great repugnance to the Jews who are apostolic, who are the messengers.
No powers dirtied the virgin.
They dirtied themselves.
THE LORD’S FATHER The lord would never say, “My father who is in heaven” unless he had another father elsewhere.
He would have simply said, “My father.” POSSESSIONS The lord said to the students, “From every house you are in, take out possessions, but take things into the father’s house and do not steal what is inside and run off.” JESUS IS A HIDDEN NAME Jesus is a hidden name, Christ is an open one.
So Jesus is not a word in any tongue but a name they call him.
In Syriac the Christ is messias, in Greek he is christos.
All languages have their own way of calling him.
Nazarene is the revealed name for what is secret.
WHAT IS CHRIST?
In himself Christ has everything, be it human or angel or mystery and the father.
THE LORD ASCENDING Some say the lord died first and then ascended.
They are wrong.
He rose first and then he died.
Unless you are first resurrected, you will not die.
As god lives, you would already be dead.
PENNY AND SOUL No one would hide a beautiful and valuable object under a lovely cover, but often vast monies are held in a bag worth only a penny.
Consider the soul.
It is a precious spirit and it came in a contemptible body.
SOME ARE AFRAID Some are afraid that they will ascend from death naked, and they want to climb back to life in their flesh.
They are unaware that those who wear their flesh are naked, and those who strip are not naked.
“Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of god.” What will we not inherit?
The flesh we wear on us.
But what then will we inherit as our own?
The body of Jesus and his blood.
Themes
◆Archonscosmology
Malevolent planetary rulers or demiurgic powers that govern the material world and obstruct the soul's ascent.
The text explicitly mentions 'Rulers' and 'Forces' that oppose salvation and seek to enslave humans.
Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.
The instruction to 'take out possessions' from every house reflects a radical letting-go of material attachments.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
It is stated that 'in secret the holy spirit on her own accomplished it all,' indicating divine ordering.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
Humans are described as originally 'connected with the good' but tricked and roped to the not good.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The saved will inherit 'the body of Jesus and his blood,' indicating a transformation into divine likeness.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
[auto] The distinction between the hidden name of Jesus and the revealed name Nazarene indicates esoteric teachings reserved for those who understand the secret.